canada
Vote Online for Legalization of Marijuana in Canada
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decided to ask the Internet what issue is most pressing to Canadians.
We have a chance to push marijuana legalization to the top of that list (It's currently #2 and #3). You don't have to be Canadian to participate, so please, wherever you're from, help us legalize marijuana in Canada.
Please, click here to vote for marijuana legalization! Let's make marijuana the #1 and #2 questions to Stephen Harper!
NDP, Liberal, Conservative politicians petition to stop Marc Emery's extradition to the US
By Carlito Pablo, Georgia StraightMembers of Parliament from three parties—Conservative, Liberal, and New Democrat—are poised to present petitions with thousands of signatures seeking to stop the extradition to the U.S. of Canada’s Prince of Pot, Marc Emery.
The key to a new life
By For the first time in more than a decade, Pat Bebonang has a key to his own place.
He had been living on the streets of Kamloops for the past four-and-a-half years, calling dumpsters and doorways home.
Before that, he spent his time couch surfing and living with friends.
For the first time in so many years, Bebonang is sober more often than not.
And the Henry Leland House, he says, helped him unlock his potential.
The Vancouver ProvinceMental illness problems common among homeless
By MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE, The Chronicle HeraldBundled up against a cold wind blowing under a grey, bare-tree sky, panhandler Gina clutched her cup of coins.
The troublesome path that led her to ask strangers for money on Spring Garden Road in Halifax was travelled with regret but resolve.
Gina said drug addiction is what led her downtown recently to beg for spare change.
Treatment for the affliction was helpful, before it was avoided. "I was on methadone for 7 ½ years," Gina, 48, said matter-of-factly. "I went off of it, which was the stupidest thing to do, and I got caught back up into it."
Vic Toews blames media for Rahim Jaffer 'smear job'
Jane Taber, Globe and MailStephen Harper’s senior Manitoba minister has launched a public attack on a journalist from his province over her reporting of the Rahim Jaffer affair, calling it a “smear job.”
In an angry letter, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews accuses Winnipeg Free Press reporter Mia Rabson, the only Manitoba reporter covering Parliament Hill, of advancing the “Liberal spin.”
Mr. Toews writes that Ms. Rabson “regularly engages” in “conspiracy theory” stories “because they don’t involve a lot of thought or work.”
Former Harper aide says Jaffer should apologize
Tonda MacCharles, The StarOTTAWA – Most of Rahim Jaffer’s Conservative caucus colleagues dashed, squirmed, or told reporters to ask Ontario’s Crown why their former national caucus chair got a “break” – as the judge called it—from prosecution on drunk driving and cocaine possession charges.
But Kory Teneycke, a former spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said Jaffer is the one who owes the public an explanation and an apology.
Key Senate post up for grabs, but Tories take a pass
By Jennifer Ditchburn, CPOTTAWA — The Conservatives have passed up a chance to seize control of a key Senate committee that they regularly attack for stalling or watering down government bills.
Now that the Tories hold more seats in the upper chamber than the Liberals, they can reconfigure committees to reflect their new power.
But instead of taking the chair of the legal and constitutional affairs committee, which has been examining hot-button crime bills, they left that job to Liberal Senator Joan Fraser.
Jaffer case draws fire from John Howard Society
The head of the John Howard Society says Justice Minister Rob Nicholson should take a long, honest look at the Rahim Jaffer case.
Craig Jones says Nicholson should apply lessons from the case to the Conservative criminal justice agenda.
Jones says the Jaffer case shows how mandatory minimum sentences don't work, because they take away discretion from judges to find proportionality in the justice system.
Jaffer is a former senior Conservative MP in the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He walked out of an Ontario courtroom yesterday after drunk driving and cocaine possession charges were dropped against him. In return, Jaffer pleaded guilty to a careless driving charge.
Harper Government Borrowing, Increasing Taxes, to Build Prisons - Crime at 30 year low
By Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service
OTTAWA — The head of Canada's prison system says there will be "major construction initiatives" in the coming years to cope with federal legislation to imprison more offenders longer — an assertion backed by new spending estimates showing a 43 per cent increase in penitentiary capital costs next year.
Don Head, commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada, set the stage for prison expansion in a recent e-mail, obtained by Canwest News Service.
